Responding to suffering the right way by following the right examples...

This week we have been looking at a section of a letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the Bible called the book of 1 Peter. So far this week we have discovered that living as part of God's Kingdom Community should lead to a life that responds to suffering the right way. In 1 Peter 3:13-18, we discovered that, as followers of Jesus, we respond to suffering the right way when suffer for the right reasons. Today, we will see Peter reveal for us the second way by which followers of Jesus respond to suffering the right way in 1 Peter 3:18-20. Let’s look at it together:

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; ¹⁹ in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, ²⁰ who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

Now these verses are some of the most discussed and debated verses in the entire Bible. As a matter of fact, many scholars view these verses as being the most difficult verses to interpret in the entire Bible. So with that in mind, let’s start where Peter starts in verse 18. After calling followers of Jesus through history to respond to suffering the right way for the right reasons, Peter provides a first example of a person who responded to suffering the right way as He suffered for the right reason. And that first example is Jesus.

What is so interesting is that the word died in verse 18, in the language that this letter was originally written in, is the same that has been translated suffering earlier in this passage. Peter’s point is that Jesus suffered on the cross for the selfishness and rebellion of humanity. And Jesus suffered on the cross for the right reasons-the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. Jesus lived the life we refused to live and died the death that we deserved to die so He could bring His followers into the presence of God as a result of them experiencing the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that they were created for.

Now that leads to the first question that we need to ask and answer, which is “what does Peter mean when he uses the phrase having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit?”  With this phrase Peter here is emphasizing the two different states of Jesus existence. Peter is referring to Jesus physical sphere of existence and His spiritual sphere of existence. Peter is pointing followers of Jesus throughout history to Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. Peter’s point to these early followers of Jesus who were experiencing sadness and suffering is that just as Jesus emerged from suffering and death into resurrection life, so would the followers of Jesus who were reading his letter.

However, that leads us to verse 19, where Peter states that Jesus, made alive in the spirit, “in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,” Now several questions immediately arise here: Where did Jesus go? What did Jesus proclaim? And who were the spirits in prison? Now if you grew up in some church traditions, you learned a creed that answered the question “Where did Jesus go” with the phrase Jesus descended into Hell.

However, there are many problems with this answer. First, the word that is used by Peter is not the one that is translated descend. Instead it is the word that is translated go. However, this phrase first appeared in the Apostle’s Creed in 400 A.D., when the church, at that time in history, used its own traditional understanding of hell as being below and inferred the going to be a descent. In addition, none of the titles used to describe the place of the dead, or Hell that were used by the writers of the New Testament are found in these verses. Finally, the place of the dead, or Hell, is never referred to with the word prison. So then where is this prison and who are the spirits? Peter helps provide an answer to that question in verse 20. Let’s look at it again:

who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

Peter explains that these spirits were once disobedient during the days of Noah? So is he talking about human spirits or angelic spirits?   To answer that question, we first need to understand the context of the days of Noah. We find this context in Genesis 6:1-4:

Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, ² that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. ³ Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." ⁴ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

One interpretation of these verses is that the sons of God were fallen angels who took human wives and had children in open rebellion against God. Now, while there are many questions about this passage and how it is to be interpreted, it is immediately after these verses that we read the account of the flood. However, in a non-biblical letter called the book of 1 Enoch, several chapters of this book were devoted to this event from history. 

The reason why this matters is that Peter and these Jewish followers of Jesus would have been very familiar with the book of 1 Enoch. However, the book of 1 Enoch was lost after the 2^nd century until a copy was discovered in the 18^th century. So, without the information contained in 1 Enoch, interpreters read this text and interpreted it using a different background, namely that of the Apostle’s creed that stated that Jesus descended into Hell. In addition, Augustine and other church fathers were far more concerned with the theological issues that this text could address, not the meaning that Peter was trying to communicate to the readers of his letter in the first century.

Another factor that we need to consider involves how popular Noah and the story of 1 Enoch was in the 1^st century. You see, Noah was the most prominently known biblical figure in this region of the world, even among Gentiles. His enduring fame is attested to by an amazing series of Noah coins that were minted by five different Roman Emperors from 193-253 A.D. So the readers of this letter would be very familiar with the story of Noah and the flood.

The readers would have been familiar with the fact that it had never rained on the earth before the flood. The readers of this letter would be very familiar with the reality that it took Noah approximately 75 years to build the ark. The readers of this letter would have been very familiar with the fact that Noah had to trust God and the promises of God in the face of criticism ridicule, and slander. Noah had to place his confident trust in God and act on that trust in the midst of being mocked and marginalized. “Hey did you hear what Noah’s doing. Noah’s building and ark because God told him that it was going to rain and that there would be a flood. What a loser!” Noah spent 75 years building what would serve to be a sign of God’s judgment to those who rejected Him and a sign of grace to those who trusted in Him.

You see, Peter brought Noah into this letter not because of a theological debate over baptism or whether or not Jesus descended into Hell. Instead Peter brought Noah into this letter so that he could connect the victory that Jesus experienced over suffering, sin, and death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection to the Noah tradition that was so popular and prominent in the culture where the readers of this letter lived. In light of the tradition surrounding the events that occurred immediately before the flood that are recorded in the book of Genesis and the book of 1 Enoch, Peter explained that the spirits that Christ preached to in prison were fallen angels and/or demonic spirits and the spirits of their offspring.

So what did Jesus say to these spirits? Was it the gospel? I do not believe so. And the reason I do not believe so is because of the connection that Peter is making between Jesus and Noah. You see, both Enoch and his grandson Noah delivered a message of condemnation to those directly involved in the evil that provoked the flood. The very act of building the ark was a condemnation of the wicked generation in which Noah lived.

The analogy Peter is making with Noah is that Jesus delivered the final message of condemnation to the spirits when He ascended to the throne of God. The confirmation is that the day of their impending and eternal condemnation, that was first announced by the flood, is now upon them. We see this reality revealed for us as Peter concludes this section of his letter in verse 21:

 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you-- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience-- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

Now an immediate reaction to these verses might be “Well Dave isn’t this saying that baptism saves us from sin. I mean that seems to be what Peter is saying here.” The reason why that is not what Peter is saying can be seen from the verses itself and the context in which these verses are in. First, did you notice what Peter immediately says after the phrase baptism now saves you? There is a hyphen right. And right after the hyphen, Peter states “not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience”. Then there is another hyphen right?

Now what happens when we read these verses without reading the words between the hyphens? It reads this way: Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter here is not advocating for baptism as a requirement for salvation. Peter is not concerned about arguing about theology as he is about addressing the current circumstances of sadness and suffering that the readers of his letter were experiencing.

And because of that reality, Peter continued to reinforce the connection between Noah, Jesus, and these early followers of Jesus by drawing an analogy between Noah’s deliverance from the floodwaters and Christian baptism.  Peter here is connecting the sins of these angelic beings in the past that were recorded in the book of Genesis and the book of 1 Enoch, the victorious proclamation of the defeat of suffering, sin, and death by the risen Jesus, and the lives of these early followers of Jesus who were reading his letter.

Peter used the flood as a type of God’s catastrophic judgment, which happened only after God’s restrained patience. Peter paints the survival of Noah as a word picture of the salvation that these followers of Jesus would experience. The followers of Jesus who were reading this letter were being encouraged by Peter that they would be among those who escape a second flood of judgment because they have already passed through the waters of Christian baptism as a result of identifying themselves with the life death and resurrection of Jesus that rescued them from their rebellion.

Peter paints this word picture to explain that the God who saved Noah as he suffered as a result of being mocked, marginalized, and slandered, is the same God who will save these followers of Jesus as they experience sadness and suffering. And it is here that Peter reveals for us the reality that we respond to suffering the right way when we follow the right examples.

As followers of Jesus, we have the example of Jesus response to suffering. Jesus suffered as one who was just for those who were unjust. Jesus suffered so that He could bring His followers into the presence of God. And just as Jesus emerged from suffering and death into resurrection life, so will those who trust in Him in the face of suffering.

And as followers of Jesus, we have the example of Noah’s response to suffering. Noah suffered as one who lived in a world corrupted by the selfishness, sin, and rebellion of spiritual beings and humanity. Noah suffered as one who was mocked, ridiculed, slandered and defamed for 75 years as he built an ark that proclaimed God's message of condemnation. Noah’s suffering for faithfully following God resulted in His rescue by God.

And the God who saved Noah as he suffered is the same God who will save followers of Jesus from their suffering. There are times where God saves followers of Jesus from their suffering. And there are times when God saves followers of Jesus as they faithfully go through their suffering....